Seven Massachusetts companies ranging from a global financial-services powerhouse to a startup Berkshire County drug manufacturer have been named winners of the third annual Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Sustainability Award. The award recognizes excellence in environmental stewardship, promotion of social well-being and contributions to economic prosperity.

AIM announced today that State Street Corporation and Eversource of Boston; Analog Devices of Wilmington; Fallon Health of Worcester; Sanderson MacLeod Inc. of Palmer; Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing of Lee; and Twin Rivers Technologies of Quincy were selected from among several dozen nominations. The seven companies will be honored at a series of regional celebrations throughout Massachusetts during September, October and November.

“These companies set the standard for sustainably managing their financial, social and environmental resources in a manner that ensures responsible, long-term success,” said AIM President and Chief Executive Officer Richard C. Lord.

“Sustainability guarantees that the success of employers benefits our communities, our commonwealth and our fellow citizens. We congratulate our honorees and all the worthy companies that were nominated.”

Sustainability has gained widespread acceptance in recent years as global corporations such as Wal-Mart, General Electric and IBM make it part of their business and financial models.

The seven honorees were selected by a committee that included members of the AIM Sustainability Roundtable, along with experts Wayne Bates PhD., PE, Principal Engineer for Tighe & Bond, Inc.; Matt Gardner, Managing Partner Sustainserv; and Cristina Mendoza, Solutions Design Lead for Capaccio Environmental.

AIM initiated the Sustainability Roundtable in 2011 to provide employers the opportunity to exchange sustainability best practices and hear from experts in the field. That opportunity has attracted hundreds of participants ranging from companies such as Bose, Coca-Cola, Boston Beer, Ocean Spray and Analogic to smaller businesses such as RH White and Precision Engineering.

Here are summaries of each recipient, along with the date and location of the celebration when each will receive the award.

State Street in 2015 launched The Boston Workforce Investment Network, a four-year program to strengthen Boston's future work force by advancing job readiness for youth. As the signature program of the State Street Foundation, the company has committed $20 million over the four years to five high-performing Boston area nonprofit organizations that focus on education and work force development.

The Boston WINs initiative brings together the private, public and nonprofit sectors toward a common goal: creating meaningful career paths for Boston youth. The program is unique both in its size and scope – State Street has committed to it across many facets of its work. State Street Foundation has pledged major support both directly and via a matching gift incentive, and the State Street Corporation is working to hire WINs candidates into permanent and internship roles. In addition, the Coordinated Action component strengthens working relationships between the WINs partners and the schools in which they work, ensuring better sharing of data.

Over the course of the program, partners will scale their reach by 60 percent so that more Boston youth will receive services that prepare them for college and career success. Since program launch in June 2015, partners have collectively served 53 percent more youth.

State Street also launched Coordinated Action a means for partners and 26 Boston public high schools to work together to prepare students for college and workforce readiness. State Street has committed to hiring 1,000 aspiring professionals as part of the initiative.

Eversource| September 27 | 100 High Street Amenity Center | Boston

The largest electric utility in New England has launched a broad-based initiative to ensure the sustainability of its work force through a commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I).

Eversource CEO Jim Judge joined more than 350 other CEOs in signing the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge. The CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance D&I in the workplace.

Eversource’s D&I Corporate Council, state teams, and Business Resource Groups (BRGs) are comprised of employees based in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire who serve as change agents and champions of D&I.

Plans are in place to launch two new Business Resource Groups in 2018: a Young Professionals BRG, an LGBQT BRG; and one in 2019: a Differently Abled BRG. Currently, nearly 1,000 employees across all three states are involved in Eversource state councils and BRGs and the company continues to evolve and expand these groups.

Eversource says it wants to build the next-generation energy work force, “one with diverse, highly skilled, and qualified employees capable of delivering on the responsibility to meet customers’ evolving energy needs.” Eversource has developed a three-year diversity and inclusion plan, which incorporates initiatives and metrics to improve our overall D&I results, and by pledging to take on specific D&I actions.

The company in 2015 initiated a major efficiency effort that has been implemented by cross-functional teams of operators, engineers, and managers, with the intent to eliminate wasteful activities and update older equipment. To date, the effort has yielded more than $1 million of annual savings in electricity costs and a 19 percent spending reduction on chemicals supporting manufacturing operations, significantly reducing ADI’s impact on the environment.

The Wilmington facility has reduced its electricity consumption by 34 percent and its water usage by 18 percent, based on data normalized to production output (i.e. the resources required to create one unit of product). ADI also reduced usage of two solvents by 60 percent in this same timeframe.

ADI says it had to convince itself as a company to think beyond what solutions worked in the past and focus on creating the future.

“Some changes – especially those related to solvent usage - affected areas or processes that were thought to be too complex or simply untouchable, others affected areas that didn’t appear would have much of an impact, until the measured effects proved otherwise,” the company says.

Specific projects completed during 2017 include:

Replacing dozens of vacuum pumps and chillers with more energy efficient models for semiconductor processing equipment. This saves over 3.4 million kilowatt hours per year.

Lowering the idle power or temperature on reactors and furnaces between runs, which saves over 1.2 million kWHs per year.

Reviewing our manufacturing facility’s exhaust configuration and optimizing the exhaust flow in many areas, resulting in 1.4 million kWHs saved per year.

Across the site, reducing nighttime lighting in low & no traffic areas as well as completing 75% of LED replacement for parking lot lighting (remaining 25% to be completed in 2018).

Consolidating the number of tools running two kinds of solvents and reducing the change-out frequency, effectively reducing usage of those solvents by over 60%.

Combining and reducing the frequency of trans-Pacific shipments reduced our usage of packing materials and generation of transportation-related pollution.

ADI recently announced that the Wilmington campus would become its new global headquarters, which entails constructing two new LEED-certified buildings. These buildings will incorporate cutting-edge energy-efficiency technology, solar panels to support energy usage, and new collaboration and social areas that will draw the best and brightest employees for years to come.

Fallon Health| October 11 | Mechanics Hall | Worcester

Fallon Health uses grants and community/employee engagement to address barriers that affect the health and well-being of under-served communities. By addressing some of the most basic barriers, such as transportation, education, housing and access to food, the health plan can identify the underlying root causes of poor health outcomes.

The commitment to hunger relief extends throughout Fallon Health. Employees throughout the organization are encouraged to volunteer in the community—and are provided eight hours of paid work time to do so. Employees volunteered 6,428 hours of their time in 2017.

Over the last 12 years, Fallon has distributed $1.8 million to hundreds of hunger-relief programs and helped 726,000 individuals throughout the state who are food insecure. Those efforts help to prevent avoidable health-related expenditures because food insecurity leads to more doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency room treatment, prescription medication and home health care.

Indirect costs associated with hunger weaken the state’s economic health through lost work time, low productivity and premature death.

Each year, Fallon’s Senior Leadership team kicks off the new year by going directly into the community to understand the barriers at street level. They volunteer their time by preparing and serving community meals for children and their families at a local Boys & Girls Club.

The company believes in helping people access food where they live and learn. Employees built or renovated food pantries at the Boys & Girls Club and the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Center in Worcester (SWNIC). During the holidays, Fallon supports families with personalized and bountiful holiday meal kits in addition to new toys and much-needed clothing. Employee donation and corporate giving in 2017 for the holiday program totaled more than $17,000.

Fallon is also working on an innovative, sustainable solution modeled after the “Open Door Pantry” in Gloucester and the “Food is Medicine” approach in Lowell. The company has partnered with the Lowell Community Health Center (LCHC), Mill City Grows and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank (MVFB) to lay the groundwork for a food pantry to be housed in the MVFB. Fallon solidified its commitment with a $50,000 donation to the project.

Sanderson MacLeod| October 18 | Wistariahurst Museum | Holyoke

Many manufacturing companies have adopted continuous improvement initiatives, but few small employers have adopted them as comprehensively as Sanderson MacLeod, a maker of twisted wire brushes based in Palmer.

The company initiated a continuous improvement effort while establishing a LEAN culture under which employee teams identified waste. Sanderson-MacLeod says involving the work force in improving the company created a rewarding experience.

“Our teams include employees from various positions. We encourage everyone to share their ideas – what the problem is and their thoughts on how to go about researching the issue and finding a solution to it. When we first started the process, we mentioned “LEAN” multiple times a day … now it is hardly mentioned as it is just a part of who we are. It is in our culture; our employees are always looking for a way to improve our processes,” the company says.

Adopting LEAN culture is a big challenge for small companies - many start the LEAN journey and then stop after a few weeks or months. The process requires a culture shift that is supported throughout the entire organization.

Sanderson-MacLeod says the move to LEAN manufacturing has made the company measurably more efficient, producing more parts in a shorter amount of time. On-time shipping metrics improved, and lead times decreased. The result – the company has brought in additional business based upon its ability to produce quality parts delivered on time.

What if you could create a sustainable, sterile drug manufacturing facility from the ground up?

Chances are that it would look a lot like Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, a three-year-old startup that specializes in manufacturing small-scale injectable drugs for clinical trials with an isolator that ups the quality of the clean-room product.

Berkshire Sterile describes itself as a state-of-the-art fill/finish contract manufacturer providing formulation and sterile filling as well as analytical development and stability services to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. All sterile filling operations at BSM are performed utilizing isolator-based technology.

BSM also offers terminal steam sterilization of syringes, specialty filling and lyophilization of vials and syringes including dual chamber liquid/liquid and liquid/lyo configurations.

It’s an operation that is generating significant economic growth in the Berkshires.

The company has hired more than 80 professional positions in the past 3.5 years. More than 10 of those employees have purchased houses in the area. Clients come from all over the US and overseas to visit the facility, bringing a lot of business to local hotels and restaurants

BSM worked with several suppliers of pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment to design and produce an isolator-based manufacturing line that could produce sterile injectable drug products in vials, syringes and cartridges. A flexible design of the system allows multiple drug container types to be filled in the same manufacturing line. The drugs that BSM produces are primarily new drugs in development and clinical trials to treat various therapeutic areas including cancer, osteoarthritis, cardiac diseases and pediatric orphan diseases.

The use of isolator technology not only provides better assurance of drug sterility, it reduces requirements for large volumes of heating, cooling and dehumidification/humidification required for traditional cleanroom environments. The technology also reduces the requirements for sterile gowning and testing reducing trash and consuming fewer valuable resources.

Twin Rivers Technologies, one of the largest Oleochemical producers in North America, executed two projects - a Combined Heat and Power/Heat Recovery Steam Generation (CHP/HRSG) facility and Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers - that created measurable benefit for the environment while underscoring the company’s significant role in the community.

The Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facility utilizes natural gas and incorporates Heat Recovery Steam Generation (HRSG) to generate high pressure steam for the manufacturing operations, as well as providing a significant portion of the electricity needed. The direct benefit of the project is an increase in steam capacity and therefore production capability, as well as improved reliability for heat and electrical utilities.

The indirect benefits of the CHP/HRSG project have been just as impressive. First, the installation helped reduce the company’s reliance on heavy fuels like #6 and #2 oils. This helped to reduce the overall emissions of the facility by decreasing volatile organic compounds, Nitrous Oxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and other pollutants released to the atmosphere. The facility is reliable and can operate without interruption if power goes out, preventing costly shutdown/startup operations where raw material, fuel, electric and manpower losses significantly affect the viability of any business.

The Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers replaced a packed-bed water scrubber that had been installed in 1998 and proved to be an ineffective odor-control device. The direct benefits of the project were the reduction of odors from the facility that impact the surrounding community and the savings of water used to supply the former odor control unit.

How do you reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent and accelerate the development of renewable energy without bankrupting businesses that already pay among the highest electric rates in the nation? One key element as New England relies more heavily on electric power is expanding natural-gas capacity. That's why Associated Industries of Massachusetts is part of the MASS Coalition for Sustainable Energy.

The video below is a must-watch for any employer worried about his or her electric bills.

Employers interested in more information about the cost of energy may contact Bob Rio at rrio@aimnet.org.

Six Massachusetts companies ranging from a global defense-electronics giant to a western Massachusetts food bank have been named winners of the second annual Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Sustainability Award. The award recognizes excellence in environmental stewardship, promotion of social well-being and contributions to economic prosperity.

AIM announced today that Raytheon Company of Waltham, Bradford & Bigelow of Newburyport, Abbott-Action of Attleboro, AIS of Leominster, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield, and Interprint Inc. of Pittsfield were selected from among several dozen nominations. The six companies will be honored at a series of regional celebrations throughout Massachusetts during September and October.

“These companies set the standard for sustainably managing their financial, social and environmental resources in a manner that ensures responsible, long-term success,” said AIM President and Chief Executive Officer Richard C. Lord.

“Sustainability guarantees that the success of employers benefits our communities, our commonwealth and our fellow citizens. We congratulate our honorees and all the worthy companies that were nominated.”

Sustainability has gained widespread acceptance in recent years as global corporations such as Wal-Mart, General Electric and IBM make it part of their business and financial models.

The six honorees were selected by a committee that included the chair of AIM’s Sustainability Roundtable ,Johanna Jobin, Director of Global EHS and Sustainability at Biogen; Wayne Bates PhD., PE, Principal Engineer for Tighe & Bond, Inc.; Cristina Mendoza, Environmental Scientist for Capaccio Environmental; and myself.

AIM initiated the Sustainability Roundtable in 2011 to provide employers the opportunity to exchange sustainability best practices and hear from experts in the field. That opportunity has attracted dozens of participants from companies such as Bose, Siemens, Coca-Cola, Boston Beer, MilliporeSigma, Ocean Spray, Analogic and Cisco.

Here are summaries of each recipient, along with the date and location of the celebration when each will receive the award.

Food Bank of Western Massachusetts | September 28 | Wood Museum of Springfield History

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts launched an initiative recently to address the problem of food insecurity.

Regional food banks, while performing important services to people in need, mostly rely on people taking the initiative to ask for help. For many people, however, this is a difficult admission to make and many people and families don’t end up getting the help they need.

The team at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts partnered with the Holyoke Health Center to develop a screening process through which people who visited the center for health-related services could be identified as being “food insecure” and referred to the Food Bank for assistance.

The result - people who might have slipped through the cracks now have a chance to get the help they need.

AIS | October 5, Mechanics Hall, Worcester | 4:30-6:30 pm

AIS, a leading office furniture manufacturer in the commonwealth, is also a sustainable manufacturer.

Sustainability is a multi-faceted undertaking that requires knowledge and commitment across the organization and leadership from the top. AIS has shown this commitment.

From deploying a state-of-the-art solar energy system that produces half of their local energy needs, to being smart and strategic about the size and location of facilities, to using the principles of LEAN manufacturing, AIS has shown the holistic thinking required to be a leader in sustainability.

Business benefits have followed. The company has reduced energy usage by 40 percent, saved more than $1.6 million dollars, all supporting a goal of 100 percent on-time delivery of products.

Raytheon, one of the most prominent high-technology electronics companies in the world and a key member of the Massachusetts business community, has long championed sustainability as an important part of how it does business.

The company integrates sustainability into every aspect of its business. Starting with a structured and strategic process to identify priorities, Raytheon employs best practices in designing, launching and maintaining comprehensive, organization-wide sustainability programs.

It’s a challenging commitment for a company that maintains more than four million square feet of office, manufacturing and R&D space in Massachusetts. But the company is making significant progress toward its 2020 goals.

Raytheon has implemented programs focused on zero-waste generation, energy and water management, and a “smart campus” program to upgrade energy management systems at its Massachusetts sites. And much of the progress has come in the form of low-cost or no-cost opportunities.

Newburyport-based specialty printer Bradford and Bigelow faced a significant challenge in making its products less environmentally harmful and more sustainable. High-end printing typically relies on the heavy use of solvents and other noxious chemicals.

But the company moved forward and became an industry pioneer in the use of higher-quality UV inks with the goal of eliminating toxic emissions of volatile organic compounds and greatly reducing energy consumption. The company also extended its environmental commitment to the inkjet side with low-energy dye-based inks. Customers constantly remark that the facility is one of the cleanest and most environmentally friendly in the industry.

Being more sustainable is not just a technical issue – employee engagement and a willingness to take chances are elements of many successful sustainability programs. And when done right, the results show benefits across all aspects of the business.

Abbott-Action | October 19 | CBS Scene, Foxboro | 4:30-6:30 pm

Sometimes sustainability initiatives require a fundamental rethinking of business processes. That was the case at Abbott-Action, a manufacturer of containers, packaging and displays, where the company recognized the need to handle the waste stream from their processes in a completely different manner.

Most of Abbot-Action’s peer companies use large electric motors to power fans and blowers that suck scrap material through ductwork at speeds of 40 mph. The scrap is then collected in a compactor and compressed into bales of waste to be recycled at a paper mill. Dust is typically captured by secondary filtration systems, which use tremendous amounts of compressed air and are costly.

Abbott-Action made the decision to invest into a Trench Scrap Removal System. This sustainable scrap- removal process operates a straight-line conveyer that is built in a trench located below the manufacturing floor. The discarded material simply falls onto the conveyer that transports the scrap to a compactor, which creates bales of scrap ready to be transported to a recycling mill. No blowers, fans or expensive electric motors.

The company realized electricity savings of as much as 90 percent compared to the conventional approach. Maintenance costs were 50 percent lower. And Abbot-Action is saving 30 percent on heating costs because there is no transfer of conditioned air out of the building.

Interprint | October 26 | Hotel on North, Pittsfield | 4:30-6:30 pm

Sustainability has long been a core principle for Interprint, a German company that is both a global leader in key employer in décor design and printing, and a key employer in Pittsfield.

Interprint’s commitment to sustainability is far reaching:

The company uses Forest Stewardship Council-certified material in many of its products. It monitors and controls the quality of its wastewater streams. It maintains an energy management system according to ISO50001, the gold standard for Energy Management systems. And its environmental management system is based on the principles of Life Cycle Impacts, where the company takes care to understand the impacts not just of its own operations but of the raw materials it uses and the products at the end of their useful lifespan.

Sustainability also played a major role in Interprint’s recently expanded facility in Pittsfield. The company deployed solar systems that will produce as much as 20 percent of its energy needs, and converted to highly efficient natural gas-powered equipment. Lighting is now LED-based, saving more than 500,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year.

Editor’s Note – Matthew Gardner, Ph.D., is Managing Partner of Sustainserv. He will serve as moderator of the AIM Sustainability Roundtable on April 8.

It’s one thing for a company to commit to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It’s another to base those reductions on strict, science-based targets.

But that’s exactly what AIM members like Walmart, Dell, Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble are doing. Another 170 global companies have committed to do the same.

The science melds global scientific greenhouse-gas reduction research with a disciplined understanding of a company’s own generation of greenhouse gasses.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by up to 70 percent by 2050 to limit global warming to 2°C , the threshold below which irreversible climate change can be averted.

Following the UN Climate Talks in Paris in 2015, an initiative was launched for companies to establish “science-based” GHG reduction targets consistent with the 2-degree C warming limit.

The standards give companies clear quantitative benchmarks against which to guide their GHG reduction efforts.

The targets apply to all of the categories of GHG emissions for which a company may be responsible. Such emissions include

“Scope 1” and “Scope 2” emissions, those related to the amounts of fuels that the company consumes in its operations (think heating, process-related and/or fuels used in company vehicles), as well as emissions related to the generation of energy that a company then uses on site (such as electricity).

By ensuring that a company has energy efficient buildings, operates an energy efficient vehicle fleet, or maximizes the efficiency of its process-related energy usage, the employer can reduce both its Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions and its expenses.

So-called “Scope 3” - those associated with the production and/or delivery of goods or services that are provided to the company by others on its behalf - emissions, are more complicated Scope 3 includes GHG emissions associated with business travel, emissions resulting from the production of materials that a company uses to manufacture its own products, or emissions from services such as shipping and logistics for which it contracts.

Scope 3 emissions can be many multiples greater than Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions. Reducing these emissions can be difficult, however, as it requires significant engagement with the suppliers of those products or services, and an awareness of the GHG impacts of those products or processes by all parties.

Establishing science-based targets, and the implementation plans to achieve those targets, is a technical process that needs careful consideration and planning. GHG emissions must be calculated carefully and according to accepted protocols. Most importantly, an action plan must be developed to achieve the goals in an economical and technically feasible manner.

Done properly, science-based targets can provide context and focus to GHG emissions programs and the actions required to make them successful.

As a ski resort, it’s not surprising that the environment is something we pay close attention to at Jiminy Peak.

Winters’ remaining cold is vital to the future of our business. In addition, environmental consciousness is something that is important to people in our world right now. We want our guests to feel good about the choice to ski at Jiminy and bring their children here.

As much as it is important to make sustainability efforts for reasons such as these, it is equally important to the bottom line of the company. It takes a lot of energy to operate a ski resort for 120 days a season; have lodging, restaurants and events taking place year round; and have summer activities run during the warmer months. We rely on snowmaking to provide our guests with the best on-snow experience and we are open nightly throughout the season with 21 of our trails lit for skiing. It is therefore imperative to our success as a business to take steps to reduce our reliance on the grid and, thus, our electric bill.

Sustainability is not new for us - it began many years ago. We began with small things, like changing out light bulbs, and quickly grew to much larger items, including the construction of a reservoir at the summit that allows us to feed water down the mountain via gravity for snowmaking.

Perhaps our most iconic initiative, and the project that brought a national focus to Jiminy’s efforts, was the construction of our 1.5 MW GE wind turbine during the summer of 2007. Most recently, we partnered with Nexamp to install the largest community shared solar project in the Northeast and replaced our snowguns and a portion of our lighting for skiing with much more energy efficient technology.

As a result of our efforts we have now reached 100 percent renewable - but that doesn’t mean we stop here. This is something that is now part of our DNA and we will continue to seek ways to reduce our costs for the health of our business as well as the future of the ski industry.

The Stop & Shop New England Division of Ahold USA will receive one of six inaugural AIM Sustainability Awards on October 24 for its innovative, state-of-the-art, Green Energy Facility in Freetown that uses anaerobic digestion to convert inedible food into clean energy. The process produces up to 40 percent of the energy for Stop & Shop's 1.1 million square-foot adjacent distribution center.

AIM will present Sustainability Awards at each of four regional celebrations in October. The events are open, free of charge, to AIM member employers.

Many companies are making progress toward a sustainable business model with initiatives in areas like energy conservation, supply chain, employee engagement, water conservation and community involvement. A common question asked by these organizations is “what efforts and initiatives should we be communicating? To whom should we communicate these efforts? How much information should we provide?”

The decision to communicate sustainability programs depends on the nature of your organization, including the type of products or services offered and the interests of stakeholders both inside and outside your organization. Once a decision has been made to communicate, the type and amount of information communicated will depend on the desired level of transparency and stakeholder demands for information.

Sustainability communications should provide insight on where the company has been, where it is, and where it is going on the issue being communicated. For example, a communication on an energy conservation success story should be told in the context of the company’s overall energy goals and how the successful implementation fits into the sustainability strategy.

Most companies with sustainability programs do a decent job of discussing obvious challenges of meeting defined goals and targets. What is often not communicated well are the issues without a solution, initiatives that may be too costly, or initiatives that may take a long time to address. If you don’t acknowledge these unsolved, unfunded, or unplanned issues, someone else may.

Furthermore, if a stakeholder identifies an issue for you and you don’t respond, it may cause a disruption to your business and/or negative press.

Just ask Subway, the fast-food sandwich chain. In 2012 a food blogger reached out to Subway to find out why they use azodicarbonamide (ADA), a bread dough conditioning additive that had been banned in Europe and Australia for health concerns. After not receiving a response from Subway, in February 2014, the blogger publicly called the food chain out for using the additive. She made the point that ADA is used as a plasticizer in commercial products like yoga mats, and encouraged the general public to sign a petition.

The story went viral, the petition received more than 50,000 signatures, and Subway received an onslaught of comments through social media. In less than 60 days, Subway announced that it was removing ADA from its bread in US stores.

Knowledgeable stakeholders know when a company is overemphasizing accomplishments and not discussing certain material issues. Carefully balancing the communication of the goals and targets for on-going initiatives with the acknowledgement of future challenges will let stakeholders know where your organization stands and provide a better understanding of what to expect in future sustainability communications.

Come join us at the next AIM Sustainability Round Table for a discussion communicating sustainability and hear from expert panelists.

Six Massachusetts companies ranging from a ski resort in the Berkshires to the largest grocery chain in New England have been named winners of the inaugural Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Sustainability Award. The award recognizes excellence in environmental stewardship, promotion of social well-being and contributions to economic prosperity.

AIM announced today that Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort of Hancock; PeoplesBank of Holyoke; W.D. Cowls, Inc. of North Amherst; Cavicchio Greenhouses, Inc. of Sudbury; Gorton’s Seafood of Gloucester; and the Stop & Shop New England Division of Ahold USA were selected from among 33 nominations. The six companies will be honored at a series of regional celebrations throughout Massachusetts in September and October.

“These companies set the standard for sustainably managing their financial, social and environmental resources in a manner that ensures responsible, long-term success,” said AIM President and Chief Executive Officer Richard C. Lord.

“Sustainability guarantees that the success of employers benefits our communities, our commonwealth and our fellow citizens. We congratulate our honorees and all the worthy companies that were nominated.”

Sustainability has gained widespread acceptance in recent years asglobal corporations such as Wal-Mart, General Electric and IBM make it part of their business and financial models.

The six honorees were selected by a committee that included the co-chairs of AIM’s Sustainability Roundtable - Johanna Jobin, Director of Global EHS and Sustainability at Biogen; and James McCabe, Sustainability Manager, Global Operations Group, Waters Corporation.

AIM initiated the Sustainability Roundtable in 2011 to provide employers the opportunity to exchange sustainability best practices and hear from experts in the field. That opportunity has attracted dozens of participants from companies such as Bose, Siemens, Coca-Cola, Boston Beer, MilliporeSigma, Ocean Spray, Analogic and Cisco.

Here are summaries of each recipient, along with the date and location of the celebration when each will receive the award.

Stop & Shop in April opened an innovative, state-of-the-art, Green Energy Facility in Freetown that uses a natural process called anaerobic digestion to convert inedible food that cannot be donated into clean energy. The process produces up to 40 percent of the energy for Stop & Shop's 1.1 million square-foot adjacent distribution center, enough power to operate the center for four months of the year.

Each day, 95 tons of inedible food from 208 Stop & Shop stores is brought to the 24,000 square-foot facility to be processed and converted into biogas. The bio-gas fuels a generator that in turn, generates electricity providing power for heating, lighting and air conditioning systems in the sprawling distribution center.

“As a responsible retailer, one of our top priorities is reducing our environmental footprint, specifically through the conversion of food that would otherwise go into a landfill,” said Mark McGowan, President, Stop & Shop New England. “The Green Energy Facility is a perfect example of our ongoing efforts to be greener in our operations.”

The Green Energy Facility is part of Stop & Shop’s strategic and long-term efforts to reduce its environmental footprint. Today, Stop & Shop diverts 88 percent of its total waste from landfills with the goal to be “zero waste” by 2020.

Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort will add to its extensive renewable energy portfolio this season by installing high-efficiency snowmaking guns on its downhill ski facility in Hancock. The resort expects to be completely powered by renewable energy by 2017.

The 450 new snow gun heads will replace older, less efficient technology and will reduce the amount of electricity used for making snow. The new LPXY snowmaking guns generate twice as much snow using half the amount of compressed air as the older model. Jiminy was able to take advantage of a National Grid energy efficiency incentive program to help offset a portion of the cost for the upgrade.

The project, along with the installation of LED lights on nine night-skiing trails, is the latest in a long history of environmental stewardship for the resort. Recent additions to the portfolio include a 2.3 megawatt community shared solar facility with Nexamp and a co-generation facility located in the Country Inn. These renewable projects are in addition to the 1.5 megawatt GE wind turbine for which the resort was awarded the Golden Eagle Award from the National Ski Areas Association.

Jiminy Peak is the largest ski and snowboard resort in southern New England and a premier four-season resort in the Berkshires. The 167-acre facility includes extensive conference and wedding facilities.

“Controlling and reducing the snowmaking operating costs, maximizing snow production and optimizing the benefits of all capital reinvestments have long been the mantra of this organization,” the company says.

“Jiminy's policy of environmental awareness is seen in all of our activities. We seek to raise the environmental awareness of guests and employees, and to broaden their knowledge and appreciation through educational programs.”

Jiminy is also a participant in the NSAA Climate Challenge, joining other resorts striving to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and preserving the earth for future generations.

Cavicchio Greenhouses, Inc. established in 1910, is a company that works and lives off the land, so it’s no surprise that the company spends a lot of time understanding and mitigating its impact on the environment.

Cavicchio is New England’s most comprehensive wholesale horticultural grower and distributor, cultivating and sustaining more than 250 acres of annuals, perennials and nursery stock, complimented by a premium selection of loam, mulch, stone, and landscape supplies.

The company operates 10 acres of state-of-the-art greenhouse space powered by computerized environmental control systems. Water usage has been addressed by installing flood floor systems to recycle water and by grading the fields (160 acres) so that irrigation water circulates back to irrigation ponds.

The company utilizes wood-fueled heating and cooling systems in its greenhouses year-round. The wood that fuels these boilers is chipped on-site from logs and cut trees brought in by landscape contractors. The process provides a convenient way for customers to recycle debris and has eliminated the need to use fuel oil.

Cavicchio Greenhouses, Inc. communicates, both internally and externally, the importance of not misusing the land they occupy, and has engaged customers by implementing free plastic-pot and tray recycling programs, recycling over 300 tons of plastic annually. And, Cavicchio has dedicated 10 acres to composting and recycling of grass, leaves, soil, brush, asphalt, concrete and cement. Other environmental efficiency improvements include incorporating electric carts and replacing diesel-powered tractors.

PeoplesBank is not only building environmental responsibility into its own future, but also helping others do the same.

The 131-year-old community bank based in Holyoke recently constructed LEED® certified branches in Springfield, West Springfield, and Northampton – the first of their kind in the area. LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

After building the branches, PeoplesBank initiated community education events to spread the word about environmentally friendly construction and building operation. It also installed electric-vehicle charging stations at three locations and held e-recycling events that have collected more than 100,000 pounds of material to date.

But the bank didn’t stop there. Using one of its core business capabilities, PeoplesBank has financed more than $100 million in wind, solar, and hydroelectric power in the region. The organization regarded tackling the sheer complexity of financing these projects as another opportunity to serve the community.

The bank even sponsors of a farmers’ market for associates, a program that led to the formation of an Environmental Committee to promote green values at home and at work.

“Through ourcommitmentand actions to support environmental sustainability, we believe that we can make the region a healthier place to live, work and raise a family,” said Tom Senecal, PeoplesBank President and Chief Executive Officer.

Here’s proof of sustainability - W.D. Cowls Inc. has been continuously managing generations of the same forest land in western Massachusetts since 30 years before the Revolutionary War.

The North Amherst forestry, real estate and building-materials company has been working woodlands in the Pioneer Valley since 1741, through nine generations of family ownership. Cowls grows and harvests diverse mixed species - including pine, oak and hemlock - along with other forest products. It also retails lumber, paint, hardware and building materials at its Cowls Building Supply store.

The long-term sustainable view that has led Cowls to care for and maintain the same Massachusetts forest for more than 275 years led the company to create the largest private conservation project in Massachusetts history, placing a Conservation Restriction on 3,486 acres of timberland now known as the Paul C. Jones Working Forest. An additional 2,000 to 3,000 acres are due to be conserved during the next 12 months.

In a textbook definition of Smart Growth, Cowls uses revenue earned conserving outlying open space to sustainably develop downtown North Amherst. Cowls’ generational Home Farm redevelopment is as sustainable as the company’s forest practices.

Every generation of the Cowls family since 1741 has built what was needed on the 20-acre Home Farm in North Amherst. The site in the past has produced tobacco and onions, and housed such diverse operations as the Amherst-Sunderland branch of the Holyoke Street Railway system, a major dairy operation and the first electric sawmill in the country.

For this generation, the Cowls’ Home Farm is becoming a new town center called The Mill District. The project already includes Cowls Building Supply; Atkins Farms Market in the old cow barn; The Lift Salon and Bread and Butter Café in the new Trolley Barn; and more than a dozen apartments.

The next phase of growth is about to begin. North Square in The Mill District will feature 130 apartments and 22,000 square feet of restaurants, shops and services underneath.

Today, as the state’s largest private landowner, Cowls sets the bar for environmental and economic sustainability.

One of the most recognizable names in seafood discovered that reducing its environmental impact is a matter of degree – nine degrees to be exact.

Gloucester-based Gorton’s Seafood, for many years a leader in preserving the oceans that yield its products, utilized data and scientific analysis to determine that raising the temperature at which its frozen seafood was distributed would significantly reduce diesel emissions tied to climate change. So the company changed its recommendation for delivery temperatures from minus 10 degrees to minus one degree

The result was that the company’s carriers saved 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel a year, the equivalent of removing 85 cars from the road or planting 696 trees. Gorton’s was also able to smooth out significant swings in temperature to which its seafood is often subjected during the long journey from plant to grocery store to home freezer.

The program is part of a broader sustainability program at Gorton’s called Trusted Catch. As part of that commitment to sustainability, Gorton’s currently sources 97 percent of its wild-caught seafood from fisheries that are certified as sustainable by a third party.

“As a seafood industry leader located in America’s oldest seaport, Gloucester, Massachusetts, we recognize that preserving our oceans and natural resources is not merely an option, it is a mandate. It is a mandate that we have followed for generations by partnering with a select group of suppliers and adhering to strict quality controls and standards that are among the toughest in the industry,” the company said.

All of the regional award celebrations are free and open to AIM members, but registration is required.

Associated Industries of Massachusetts announced today the establishment of the AIM Sustainability Award recognizing companies for excellence in managing environmental stewardship, social well-being and economic prosperity.

The association is seeking nominations for five 2016 Sustainability Awards to be presented at a series of regional employer events during September and October. Award recipients will be selected by a panel that includes the co-chairs of the AIM Sustainability Roundtable – Johanna Jobin, Director of Global EHS and Sustainability at Biogen; and James McCabe, Sustainability Manager, Global Operations Group, Waters Corporation.

“It’s an incredibly exciting announcement,” said Jobin, who has chaired the Sustainability Roundtable for three years.

“The decision by the largest employer association in Massachusetts to establish a Sustainability Award confirms the growing importance that companies are placing on operating and growing in a responsible, transparent manner.”

Sustainability is the process by which companies manage their financial, social and environmental risksto ensure responsible long-term success. Once limited to a group of niche companies, the concept has gained widespread acceptance as global corporations such as Wal-Mart, General Electric and IBM make sustainability part of their business and financial models.

Companies applying for the AIM Sustainability Award may do so based upon their accomplishments in any of four areas:

A new idea

Environmental impact

Collaboration and communication

Social impact

Companies of all sizes and from any industry sector are welcome to apply. Applicants must be members in good standing of the association.

AIM initiated its Sustainability Roundtable in 2011 to provide employers the opportunity to exchange sustainability best practices and hear from experts in the field. That opportunity has attracted dozens of participants from companies such as Bose, Siemens, Coca-Cola, Boston Beer, MilliporeSigma, Ocean Spray, Analogic and Cisco. The Roundtable next meets June 16 at Philips North America in Andover to discuss the role that sustainability standards play in supply-chain relationships.

“The Roundtables and the new award encourage those of us working to improve the performance of our companies by improving their relationship to the community and the environment,” McCabe said.

“We urge companies of all sizes and types to apply and look forward to learning about the innovative practices being undertaken by our fellow Massachusetts employers.”

Editor’s Note – Matthew Gardner, Ph.D., is Managing Partner of Sustainserv. He will serve as moderator of the AIM Sustainability Roundtable on June 16.

The boundaries of corporate sustainability programs are rapidly expanding to include not just the operations of a particular company, but also the impacts and actions of its suppliers and business partners.

Many major corporations, such as Walmart, now require suppliers to provide detailed information regarding their environmental impacts, social and labor-related programs, and efforts to mitigate negative impacts they may be having on their environs. The environmental, social and labor records of a company’s suppliers may represent significant risk to the company’s business and/or carefully crafted public image.

Supply-chain sustainability has also entered the regulatory arena under the Dodd-Frank Conflict Mineral legislation, under regulations regarding human trafficking enacted by the state of California and Great Britain, and under other laws. These regulations compel companies to disclose the manner in which their supply chains source key raw materials or address the risks related to human trafficking and forced labor.

Social responsibility issues have also received attention of world leaders. In June 2015, following their summit meeting, the leaders of the G7 countries issued a statement recognizing “the joint responsibility of governments and business to foster sustainable supply chains and encourage best practices.”

But addressing supply chain sustainability is easier said than done. Small companies may interact regularly with as many as one hundred suppliers. Large multinationals in the retail sector frequently have more than 100,000 suppliers. Collecting information from a supply chain of any size is an exercise in disciplined data collection, risk assessment and strategic engagement.

Resources and tools are also available to help you prioritize your sustainable supply chain efforts. Programs such as Ecovadis (www.ecovadis.com) or Sedex (www.sedexglobal.com) have engaged thousands of suppliers globally, and offer access to large datasets of sustainability related information from these suppliers.

Other databases, such as the Social Hotspot Database (socialhotspot.org), offer information specific to social responsibility and labor/workforce related issues. These resources allow companies to prioritize which suppliers, sectors or regions may represent disproportionate risk, and thus necessitate greater scrutiny. Based on this, a company can focus its supplier inquiries, whether in the form of surveys or interviews, on those areas that represent the greatest risk, and deploy their limited resources effectively.